An Eclectic Journal of Opinion, History, Poetry and General Bloviating

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

This Is Not a Drill—Black Churches Near Ferguson Really Are Burning

The New Life Missionary Baptist Church was the most heavily damaged of 5 Black churches near Ferguson, Missouri attacked by arson.

Back earlylast summer in the wake of the Charleston church shooting, there was
what seemed to be a spate of fires at Black churches across the South.Activists saw a pattern and soon the Internet and social media were abuzz with stories and memes that connected the fires to arson and hate crimes by racists targeting
the heart and soul of the
Black Community.The whole
thing soon got a Twitterhashtag— #WhoIsBurningBlackChurches—just asBlack Lives Matterdid after the string ofpolice killingsof unarmed Blacksbegan last year.Then
church fires were caused by lightning
strikes, electrical shorts, and
other accidents.The exact cause of
several others could not be determined by
investigators.Two cases
were pretty plainly arson and some others were suspicious and are still being investigated as possible hate
crimes.I covered all of this, including
the doubts and questions in my July 2 post,Deja
Vu—Who’s Burning Black Churches?

Of course when every fire did not turn out to be
arson the right wing media ravers and social media trolls were in gotcha
heaven.If some reports were in error it
was proof that all of them were lies.The usual dark conspiracy theories
were trotted out against Black activists and their allies.If
there were fires, they were set by anti-Christian
bigots, Muslim terrorists, or atheists without
racial motivation.Better yet, Black
themselves set the fires to gain sympathy
and to discredit honest patriots and supporters of the Confederate flag.Or it was an Obama false flag
operation to excuse declaring martial law and begin
gun confiscation.You know the drill.Unless you have sealed yourself
off of this vitriol you
undoubtedly saw it.

When I shared my post as usual which acknowledged
the errors and exaggerations but maintained that some attacks
were real and that there was historic
precedence for attacks on Black churches that made even the more paranoid claims understandable in context, with
various Facebook groups, it
unleashed a spate of personal attacks and vitriol like I have seldom seen and which
were unmatched for the length of time they continued.The only thing missing was the threats of physical violence to me and my family that accompany even the mildest
suggestion that there should be some sort of rational restrictions on gun
sales.This post will undoubtedly
set off the same reaction from the same goons.

Because I have news for them and everybody
else—Black churches are burning in the northern St. Louis area, around Ferguson, ground
zero of the Black Lives Matter movement.And this time the evidence of intentional arson is irrefutable.Six Black
churches were attacked in just a ten day period.In each case an accelerantwas used to set fire to the church entry
doors.None of the buildings were destroyed, but some suffered substantial
damage.

This map illustrates how closely spaced the six arson fires were.

St. Louis Fire
Captain Garon Mosby and local police
sources have told the media that “It is arson. These [fires] are being
intentionally set.”The same authorities
acknowledge that the arsons were likely hate crimes motivated by “racial or
religious bigotry.”The similarity of methodology, the geographic clustering of the targets, and timing of the attacks suggest
that most if not all of them are the work of an individual or small
group.Copy cats can’t yet
be ruled out in the later cases which occurred after the media finally began coverage of the fires.

All of the fires have taken place within a three
mile radius of Ferguson.The churches
which have been attacked are:

Bethel
Non-Denominational Church in Jennings
on October 8.

New
Northside Missionary Baptist Church in Jennings on October 10.

Minerva-St.
Augustine Catholic Church in St. Louis on October 14.

New
Testament Church of Christ in St. Louis on October 15.

New
Life Missionary Baptist Church in St. Louis on October 17.

Ebenezer
Lutheran Church in St. Louis on October 18.

Damage to the New Life Baptist Church seems to be
the most extensive burning not only the door but damaging the front of the building and entrance way.Parishioners had to
hold Sunday services on the front lawn.Worship
services and other activities were mostly un-interrupted in the
other cases.

Some of the affected churches have offered small
rewards for information and a $2,000
award is being offered by St. Louis
Regional CrimeStoppers and the Bureau
of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives which is taking a lead role in
the investigation along with the St. Louis City Fire Department Investigative Unit and the St. Louis Regional Bomb and Arson Unit.

Meanwhile area churches are rallying in support of
each other.Today the Rev. Roderick K. Burton, pastor of New Northside Missionary Baptist Church,
has invited the St. Louis faith community to come
together at his church for a noon prayer
service. Public vigils are under
discussion as well as other community action.

As usual the general lack of media attention has drawn criticism.The local press
and TV have
responded slowly, but seem to be ramping up coverage, although it is not a top
headline.The national media has barely
mentioned the rash of arsons at all.Even the alternative media and the social media networks around the
Black Lives Matter and new Civil Rights
movements have been cautious, perhaps still gun shy from being burned over this
summer’s church burning stories.

Some attribute the relative lack of attention to the
modest actual damage done.But blatant intimidation cannot be ignored.It can be contagious
and levels of violence can escalate quickly.It seems to me the time is now for the
broader faith communities to rally and boldly speak up, even when it puts us at risk.

The first of a series of Black Lives Matter banners at the River Road Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Bethesda, Maryland that were vandalized.

In the last year majority
white congregations have responded to police violence and other outrages by
displaying Black Lives Matter banners on their
property.Unitarian Universalist Congregations as part of the Standing on the Side of Love campaign have been
leaders in this show of support.Over
the past month more than a dozen UU congregations from coast to coast have seen
their banners stolen, slashed, defaced,
burned, or painted with the words “All
Lives Matter” or even openly racist
slogans or symbols.Some churches, like the River Road Unitarian Universalist Congregation in
Bethesda, Maryland have seen their signs vandalized repeatedly.

Among the churches victimized was the First Unitarian Church of Saint Louis, which
has been actively involved in supporting the Black community since protests over
Michael Brown’s death began
and which still hold weekly Black Lives Matters roadside vigils.When other congregations, including those
from the United Church of Christ and the Presbyterians also experienced vandalism or
theft of their signs, all of the churches together went together to rent a giant electronic billboard along
busy highway U.S. 41 with the
Black Lives Matter message.

Many churches displaying the signs and banners have
been flooded with phone calls and seen
their web pages and
social media sites deluged with hateful and sometimes threatening
messages.Criticism of a message on the electronic signboard at Chicago’s Beverley Unitarian Church which is
in a southwest side neighborhood heavily
populated by members of the Chicago
Police Department, was so vitriolic and ugly that the Congregation
replaced the message with an innocuous “Life Matters Risk Loving Everyone” and
has since kept a low profile on the issue in contrast to the defiant refusal to
knuckle under to bigotry displayed by most other UU congregations.Still, the experience shows that intimidation sometimes does work.

We must not allow it to triumph.In the wake of the St. Louis arsons and
continued routine violence against Black citizens we need to re-double our efforts to stand in solidarity with an oppressed community under concerted attack.And we must do so as faithful
allies, not seeing ourselves as rescuing
heroes.The attacks on our banners
and signs, the harassment on-line, are not equal to the actual damage and pain
experienced by our Black Church brothers
and sisters.Even
under attack we are wrapped in white privilege.